UN Security Council postpones DPRK sanctions vote to Wednesday

World Today

Samantha Power, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. talks to the media during a break in United Nations Security Council consultations, Thursday, Feb. 25, 2016, at the United Nations. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

A U.N. Security Council vote on the toughest sanctions on Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, or DPRK, in two decades has been postponed until Wednesday morning at Russia’s request, France said Tuesday.

The United States had asked the council to schedule a vote Tuesday afternoon on the draft resolution in response to Pyongyang’s latest nuclear test and rocket launch.

A vote on the resolution, drafted by the U.S. and China, has been held up for several days by Russia, which asked for more time to study the lengthy text and reportedly suggested changes.

The draft resolution for the first time would subject cargo ships leaving and entering DPRK to mandatory inspections. It also would prohibit the sale of small arms and other conventional weapons to DPRK, closing a loophole in earlier resolutions.

U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power has said the sanctions would limit and in some cases ban exports of coal, iron gold titanium and rare earth minerals from DPRK and would prohibit countries from supplying aviation fuel, including rocket fuel, to the country.

But the draft resolution lets countries determine whether such exports are for military or humanitarian purposes, which takes into account the bleak humanitarian situation of the majority of North Koreans.

In addition, the draft resolution would impose financial sanctions targeting DPRK’s banks and assets and ban all dual-use nuclear and missile related items.

Items such as luxury watches, snowmobiles, recreational water vehicles and lead crystal have been added to a long list of luxury goods that DPRK is not allowed to import.

As with previous resolutions, the test will be whether U.N. member states enforce the sanctions. A U.N. panel of experts monitoring the sanctions has repeatedly pointed out that enforcement can be weak.

DPRK started off the new year with what it claims was its first hydrogen bomb test on Jan. 6 and followed up with the launch of a satellite on a rocket on Feb. 7. It was condemned by much of the world as a test of banned missile technology.

Over the past 20 years, DPRK has conducted four nuclear tests and launched six long-range rockets, all in violation of Security Council resolutions.

The U.S., its Western allies and Japan have pressed for new sanctions that go beyond the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs. But China, Pyongyang’s neighbor, is reluctant to impose measures that could threaten the stability of DPRK and cause its economy to collapse.

CCTV America’s Asieh Namdar interviewed Stephan Haggard, director of the Korea-Pacific Program at the University of California, San Diego about possible sanctions against the DPRK for testing nuclear weapons.